


reflecting on reflections

by yesitsalsoagun



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Edolas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-10-15 22:12:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17537252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yesitsalsoagun/pseuds/yesitsalsoagun
Summary: people in edolas really aren't that different from their earthland counterparts. when you think about it, they’re the same person, just in a different world. they grew up differently. they reacted to that circumstance differently. that one crucial turning point in their lives never happened to them.





	reflecting on reflections

 

lucy ashley is similar to lucy heartfilia, in some ways. her father is overbearing and controlling. her future is in his hands, being laid out before her. she doesn’t have a say. there is no solace in that house; no friends in the shape of her late mother’s celestial spirits. she closes herself off, becomes cold, and lashes out. she dreams of the day she will finally leave; maybe taken in the night by a dark guild and finding an unexpected family. she dreams and she  _dreams_  until finally she can’t stand her father any longer. as she leaves her father’s manor, she chops off her hair, flips him the bird, and never looks back.  _if you really want to change something, take it into your own hands_.

 

natsu dragion is terrified. there is no dragon, no burning flame inside of him providing him with boundless strength. there is no ever-present, powerful family around him, telling him that with each other, they can accomplish anything. what he does have is a small, desperate and scared family constantly on the run, with numbers dwindling with each escape. what he does have is a sister figure who beats him up to make him stronger (who loves him and who he loves, but he really wishes she would lay off the punishments once in a while like lucy  _please_ ). what he does have is an enormous magic four-wheeler with wheels that catch on fire. which is pretty sick. he’d like to see the fairy hunter try and fight a vehicle coming at her at over a hundred miles per hour. behind the wheel, inside the walls of the four-wheeler, he is safe. he is powerful. and he is  _fast_. the fastest, actually. he can outrun any monster, any royal squadron, any problem and any enemy. and that’s enough for him.

 

wendy doesn’t like humans. her adoptive mother doesn’t like them either. they’re too brash, they think fighting solves everything. they think if they want something badly enough, it’s free for them to take. the king of edolas continually steals from earthland, claiming it’s for the greater good, for the good of edolas, but even wendy, as young as she is, can see it’s to sate his own greed. his own lust for power. she doesn’t like humans. she especially hates the ones that pick on her new friends; the timid boy who won’t stop apologizing, the older boy who constantly challenges authority, and the black and white pair of her age that won’t stop bickering and also won’t leave each other’s side. seeing them get hurt sends her into action. she takes them all on–anyone and everyone who raises a hand against her friends. she hates humans, but some of them aren’t so bad. and those ones are worth fighting for.

 

cana loves her father. gildarts is a well-off nobleman, who raised cana on his own to be a proper lady.  _maybe not quite proper enough_ , she thinks as she steeps her tea in the middle of fairy tail’s guild hall. her father would surely chastise her for joining a dark guild, but she can’t help it. she loves her friends, her family, dearly. it breaks her heart each time the guild loses a member. she doesn’t understand why the king still wants to fight after all this time. all cana wants is to sit with her friends and have a nice cup of tea. all she wants is for everyone to be safe and happy. jet kicks over a table for the third time today and natsu stumbles by, crying as lucy sits on his shoulders and argues with levy across the room. not quite what she envisioned. even so, she smiles behind her cup, there’s nowhere else she would rather be.

 

mavis never casts law. she ages normally, staying with her newfound family and remaining fairy tail’s master for decades. when the king declares all magic guilds outlawed, she begins to strategize. she already lost one family. she will not lose this one–she will not lose zera this time, nor yuri, precht, or warrod. so she stands tall, stands proud, and defies the king. her strategies bring them victory after victory, and for a while, they win, they celebrate. but their victories are short lived; the king presses down harder on fairy tail. after one especially crushing defeat, where most of the guild barely escaped with their lives, and yuri was fatally wounded, mavis breaks down and cries. this is her fault, she thinks. she should have strategized better, she should have seen that coming, how could she not? how could she be wrong? how could she mess up? how could she let her  _family_ get so terribly hurt because of her? she can’t take it. she stands in front of her guild and she offers a heartfelt apology, and steps down. she stays long enough to see that her guild is stable without her, and she leaves. and one last time as the fairy tactician, she doesn’t see something coming. zera leaves with her. 

 

ivan is a traitor. after mavis steps down, he swoops in with a new strategy: run and hide. the guild has lost almost a third of their members, including their master and one of the other founders. other guilds are crumbling around them. they are heartbroken and terrified. the idea of running, hiding, and staying safe, sounds better than ever. for twenty years, they move their guild somewhere secluded, and run when they’re discovered. they keep to themselves and they are safe for a while. then  _she_  arrives. erza knightwalker, a ruthless and cruel captain of the royal army. she sets her sights on the elusive remaining guild and she hunts them relentlessly. they move sooner and sooner, losing more and more members. the guild argues as the time for the fairy hunter’s arrival draws near. ivan slips outside, into the forest the guild is hiding in. they will run like always, he knows this. and he knows where they will run to. he always knows. and through him, the king knows too. family is family, after all. he stands behind the guild and waits. knightwalker’s red hair soon becomes visible in the forest. she is twirling ten commandments in her hand. 

_the guild’s path is predictable,_ she says by way of greeting.  _your information is no longer necessary._  

relieved, he sighs.  _i can finally return to the castle, then._  her spear at his throat makes him think otherwise. he swallows hard.  _i have provided you with useful information! i have been valuable to you!_

her spear comes closer. _that is no longer the case._ _as useful as you have been in the past, you are still a fairy._ her grin makes his blood run cold.  _and i kill fairies._

 

lisanna was a kind soul. she and her siblings grow up in a guild on the run, always on the brink of extinction, and instead of becoming hard like the world around them, they become kind. they smile brightly at the rambunctious guild antics, and softly console grieving friends. their situation is far from desirable, and they know this. but they have nowhere to go. many of their guild members don’t either. so when the fairy hunter is always right on their heels, it’s understandable when the guild panics. some of them accept it, accept their fate, ready to lie down and die. others loudly protest, wanting to stand up and push back, and only go down if they go down fighting. a small amount suggest disbanding and scattering to the winds. 

_we need to decide_ , someone–probably levy–yells,  _she’s going to be here any minute!_  

the guild descends into madness, shouting and arguing. things are starting to get out of hand, and lisanna looks around, desperately hoping the master will step in. wait–where  _is_  he? 

_i’ll go find the master,_  she announces, a hand on the door handle,  _he should be able to settle things._

what she does not expect to find in the forest is the master bargaining with erza knightwalker.  _i have provided you with valuable information!_  she presses her hands to her mouth, feeling sick. knightwalker cuts him down and she can do nothing but stand in shock. the fairy hunter, with the master’s blood splattered across her armor, spots lisanna and grins.

 

laxus is lonely. ever since his father infiltrated a dark guild, laxus has been left alone in the royal castle. the king lives there, of course, along with lots of advisers, servants, royal guards, and knights. one of which has been assigned to watch over him after one too many midnight outings. bickslow is stoic, a buzzkill, and no matter what laxus does, he  _cannot_  get the man to laugh. even so, he appreciates the company. especially when a green haired thief snatches his wallet and he doesn’t even notice until bickslow runs after him. what laxus thinks he appreciates more, though, is how easy it is to convince him not to alert the authorities. laxus looks at the thief, who has backed himself up against the wall and is looking at the two of them apprehensively, and feels sympathetic. he kneels down and asks him his name. 

_freed_. 

laxus gives freed some of the money from his wallet.  _you can just ask next time, though_.

freed shows up a week later at laxus’s window and asks if he wants to hang out. they become fast, unlikely friends after that, with bickslow as a begrudging chaperone. freed spins dramatic tales and laxus hangs on every word. bickslow is polite enough to wait until the end of a story before pointing out that they’re completely fabricated. laxus knows, but he still loves to listen. one particular tale freed tells sends the three of them to the cobalt forest, looking for a local cryptid, after bickslow says some reports line up with the story. laxus almost instantly gets separated from the other two, and finds himself stumbling into a clearing. sitting facing away from him is a young woman with long, unkempt brown hair. laxus’s blood runs cold. she matches the description almost perfectly. he panics, scrambles backwards, and falls into a bush. the woman whirls around, and after a long, terrifying silence, she laughs. after a while, laxus joins her. he apologizes for startling her, and she smiles. 

_you are not like the others._ he takes that as a compliment. he sheepishly explains that he’s  _kind of sort of totally lost_ , and she helps him find his way out. they find freed and bickslow at the edge of the forest, and laxus excitedly introduces the two of them to his new friend, evergreen. the four of them build strange, but close bonds even as the kingdom descends further into something none of them like. laxus can’t stand what his father is doing. bickslow can’t stand to see his fellow knights follow terrible orders. freed can’t stand watching people he knows go hungry on the streets. evergreen can’t stand to see the king stealing so much magic for himself. 

_what if we all just left_ , laxus says one day.  _just ran away, got away from all this. we could go exploring! go on adventures and see the world!_  

the three of them look between each other, and then back to him.  _if it’s with you, i don’t see why not._

 

lisanna strauss is not supposed to be in edolas. she doesn’t exactly know how she got here in the first place. she remembers that beast taking over her brother and sending her flying. she remembers feeling fuzzy and…floating? she thought she died. but here she is, alive and well, being crushed to death in a hug by her sister who is not her sister and her brother who is not her brother. mira isn’t even close, not by a long shot; she’s soft and gentle, not like her sister who is hard and rough to stop the world from hurting her, but who cares so so deeply about the ones she loves. elf reminds her of a younger version of the one she knows; he’s sensitive and timid, and while her brother might be shy, he is stronger than most give him credit for, as he endured the same hardships she and mira did.

it’s not quite right, but they’re clinging to her, shaking and crying.  _we’re so glad you’re alright, we thought she killed you._ lisanna looks up at the sky, which isn’t quite the right color, and with a hollow feeling in her chest, she knows she’s here to stay. so she hugs them back, holds them tightly, and mourns the home she will never see again.

fairy tail in edolas is wrong. it’s wrong, so wrong, it’s  _off_  in so many ways, but she smiles at all the people who cry when they see her, who hug her just as tightly as mira and elf. she pretends she doesn’t remember much, and people fill her in with recent news and old history. it works for a while, but there are still parts missing, parts she doesn’t fully comprehend. it feels like trying to solve a puzzle with a handful of pieces you’ve stolen from someone else. mirajane shows her a picture of the three of them from a few years ago. lisanna looks like her, she thinks as she holds it, but not quite. her hair in the picture is shorter. she cuts it. lisanna wore longer dresses than she does. she changes clothes. she makes it work. this is her home now, this is her family now. this is where she belongs now. even if she feels like a puzzle piece forced into the wrong spot; bent at the edges, not quite fitting with the ones around her. even if the ground she walks on, the air she breathes, the very world around her feels  _wrong_ , as if screaming at her that she’s out of place. even if she’s not quite sure who she is anymore, somewhere between lisanna strauss and lisanna from edolas. even if she cries some nights, homesick, missing her family, her fairy tail, torn between wanting to go home and not wanting to make her siblings cry again. lisanna strauss is not supposed to be in edolas, but she’s staying anyway.


End file.
